December 23, 2012

Working on hollow, square, aluminum beams, Brian Dupont paints snippets of found text such as passages from Beckett, Richard Serra's verb list drawing, and narratives written by friends. Dupont's small-scale wall objects, reminiscent of the controversial rusted steel facade of the nearby Barclays Center, have a worn, weathered look that speaks of struggle and process, but ultimately arrives at a beautiful, warm patina. Here are some snaps from a recent studio visit.

Dupont and I discussed the nature of text, and the difference between writing something by hand and using a typeface. Typeset text provides distance, while handwritten text has more overt emotional content. Using stencils allows Dupont to break the phrases into individual painted letterforms that have both the distance of typesetting and the warmth of handwriting. But ultimately Dupont is interested in how we apprehend information. "I want to force the viewer to reassess their relation to both the text and object," he says. "Because all sides can't be viewed simultaneously, the complete text is only comprehended as an abstract construction."

Work in progress.

A view in the other direction.

After my visit, I hoped on the G train and headed to Lauren Luloff's studio sale, where I picked up a lively painting called The House Outside. Stay tuned for more details.